pontiff | November 13, 2007Tonight I watched NOVA's Judgement Day: Intelligent Design On Trial. Ah shucks, us quantum physicists never get to have so much fun (err, I mean, experience so much pain and deal with so much silliness) trying to defend our science. It's not like, you know, there aren't people who think quantum theory is wrong or that quantum theory is somehow related to the Vedic teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. So why is it that quantum theory (which after all is "just a theory" wink, wink, nod, nod) doesn't illicit courtroom battles of such epic scope as the Dover trial?
I mean, let's talk about…
pontiff | November 13, 2007Grad school opportunities, postdoc opportunities, interference experiments, more D-wave, and sabbatical at the Blackberry hole
Pawel Wocjan writes that he has positions open for graduate students in quantum computing:
Ph.D. Position in Quantum Computing & Quantum Information with Dr. Pawel Wocjan, School of EECS, University of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando, in sunny Florida
I am accepting applications for a Ph.D. position in Quantum Computing and Quantum Information starting in Fall 2008. You can learn more about my research and the research in quantum information science at UCF by…
pontiff | November 13, 2007Okay, there are some weird plots in science papers out there, but something about this one (which Pak at scirate.com pointed me to), taken from arXiv:0711.1751 "Paleontological Tests: Human-like Intelligence is not a Convergent Feature of Evolution," by Charles H. Lineweaver made me laugh:
pontiff | November 13, 2007Last night I went to the Seahawks/49ers game at Seattle's spectacular Qwest field. While the field was spectacular, my SF 49ers were less than spectacular, losing the game 24-0. In fact they down right stunk. Ouch. Qwest field really is a rocking venue: I attended a game last year right after the league started investigating the Seahawks for pumping in noise over the speakers (which the team denied, and as far as I know no one has ever shown.) That game had the loudest crowd I have ever heard. Walking to the game from downtown Seattle you could hear the crowd from a huge distance away.…
pontiff | November 12, 2007D-wave systems, whose paracomputer, err, I mean quantum-maybe computer, which sparked quite a bit of controversy earlier this year, is back in the news. This time D-wave is at the big superconducting conference (SC07) being held in Reno, Nevada and is demonstrating a 28-qubit quantum-maybe computer. Paint me an ivory tower skeptic, but I don't think their system will work as they expect it to. Of course, this being, D-wave, the news article makes for some entertaining reading.
First up we have this beautiful quote from Geordie Rose, D-Wave founder and CTO,
"We have been collaborating…
pontiff | November 12, 2007I'm fascinated by watching the developments in touch and movement based computer interfaces over the past few years. From the Apple iPhone to the Nintendo Wii, it seems that there is a great deal of excitement over these new interfaces. Nearly every week I see something interesting in this domain. Here, for example is a neat little video demoing how to do IR tracking with Nintendo Wii's sensor and some IR reflecting tape on your fingers:
Whenever I see these new interfaces, I immediately think of the cortical homunculus
which is a representation of the primary motor cortex, weighting the…
pontiff | November 11, 2007Here is the story of a seven year old (supposed) prodigy whose parents are looking for a university which will enroll him. I always find it interesting in these stories that such an emphasis is put on degrees and tests. It also reminds me of my high school math teacher who told us he could teach his six year old son to do calculus.
pontiff | November 8, 2007Many of you know I'm a big fan of funny/creative paper titles. What with journal editors squashing every last ounce of humanity our of scientific papers, it always makes me happy to see someone else fighting the editorial machine. Today a friend sends me "Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC - Last Call for Predictions," by S. Abreu et al arXiv:0711.0974 (scirate here.) which cracks me up.
I'm not sure why it cracks me up, but probably because it makes me think of an overloaded boat leaving the dock with a bunch of crazy haired theoretical physicists flinging themselves at the boat at the last…
pontiff | November 7, 2007
What's that you say Dave? Dogs may be able to think about what their owners are thinking? Sounds like interesting research, Dave. If someone could actually find the real research and not just this science by press release, I would really like to read the paper, Dave! And then I'd like to chew it up and hide it in the backyard.
pontiff | November 6, 2007SQuInT 2008. Quantum postdocs. Christianity as a laser. Toshiba opens lab with a quantum bent.
SQuInT 2008, my favorite conference, has been announced and will be Feb 14-17 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Speakers include
Eddie Farhi (MIT)
Patrick Hayden (McGill University)
Alex Kuzmich [unconfirmed] (Georgia Tech)
Giacomo Mauro D'Ariano (University of Pavia)
Irina Novikova (College of William & Mary)
Ray Simmonds (NIST Boulder)
along with tutorials
Steven van Enk (University of Oregon) "Entanglement and Verification"
John Martinis (University of Californian, Santa Barbara) "…
pontiff | November 5, 2007Oftentimes I've been asked what the purpose of this blog is. As if everything in life must have a purpose:pfft, I say! But because an answer is required, what I usually answer is that the purpose of my blog is to slow down my fellow researchers. I mean sheesh, the people in quantum computing are the modern polyglots of science, speaking physics, computer science, and mathematics with ease. And they're universally a brainy crowd. So what better purpose can this blog serve that to slow these readers down by offering them great opportunities to surf the intertubes and procrastinate.
Along…
pontiff | November 5, 2007(With apologies to Jorge Luis Borges.)
The universe, which others call the cellular automata, is composed of an indefinite (and perhaps infinite) number of square rooms, each room having four doors (in what we can, for lack of a better choice, assumelie in the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west.) Each door leads to an adjoining room which is identical to the other rooms except for one salient feature. In the middle of each room stands a monstrous monolith whose color is not fixed, but changes regularly every forty two seconds.
Like most inhabitants of the universe, I have…
pontiff | November 3, 2007Look, up in the air, is it a bird? No. Is it a plane? No. Is it the quantum pontiff? Yes! Yes! The Quantum Pontiff! Um, okay....but what exactly is the quantum pontiff? Besides, of course, the juxtaposition of two words which don't often find themselves seated together at the dinner table...
Some quick digging turns up the following disturbing list of facts about "The Quantum Pontiff":
"The quantum pontiff" is, according to Google, the second most likely thing you are looking for if you have searched for the word pontiff. At one point it was the number one thing you were looking…